1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for human interfaces of an ultrasonic diagnostic system, and particularly to an apparatus for human interfaces of an ultrasonic diagnostic system based on a personal computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The apparatus for human interfaces of an ultrasonic diagnostic system generally comprises: an input device such as a keyboard, tracking ball and mouse, a hard disk, and a monitor. Most ultrasonic diagnostic systems in the market have a customized circuit for controlling human interfaces, and storage formats of the ultrasonic diagnostic systems are mostly not the same.
Nowadays, personal computers are very popularly used in everywhere. If data regarding medical video signals can be accepted by a personal computer, the data processing will be very convenient. To meet this requirement, a few ultrasonic diagnostic systems in the market utilize a personal computer to control the data processing, and use a keyboard as a human interface. However, some special keys used by a doctor are not shown in a normal keyboard of a personal computer, and a customized panel portion and control interface are needed to be further provided to communicate with the personal computer. The above description is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,795,297. Besides, in displaying images, video capturing cards are needed to capture ultrasonic video signals from the output of the ultrasonic diagnostic system, and the ultrasonic video signals are then delivered to the monitor of the personal computer. The above description is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,015,385, 5,795,297 and 5,590,658 and also disclosed in WO 95/15521.
Unfortunately, video signals inside the ultrasonic diagnostic system are transmitted in a digital format, and before the video signals reach the output end, a digital-to-analog converter is needed to process for meeting requirements by a video capturing card, and an analog-to-digital converting is needed to process for meeting requirements by a personal computer. The prior art human interfaces will not only increase the power consumption of the system, but also increase design complexity and cost of the ultrasonic diagnostic system.
An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for human interfaces of an ultrasonic diagnostic system based on a personal computer to facilitate data processing and communication. The apparatus can be applied to an input end and output end of the ultrasonic diagnostic system.
To achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to an apparatus for human interfaces of an ultrasonic diagnostic system based on a personal computer, comprising an input data operation unit, a video display unit and a video capturing control unit. The video capturing control unit includes: a transducer connector for receiving ultrasonic feedback signals; an ultrasonic preprocessor for outputting video signals in response to the ultrasonic feedback signals; a system timing controller for controlling the output of the video from the ultrasonic preprocessor; and a host computer for receiving instructions from the input data operation unit and controlling the system operation of the ultrasonic diagnostic system and message display of the video display unit. The input data operation unit includes: a panel portion having a plurality of input device for receiving commands from a user; and a circuit portion for transferring the commands to the host computer. The video display unit includes: a digital scanning converter for converting output video signals of the ultrasonic preprocessor into digital video signals; a video display controller for controlling the output of the digital video signals; and a digital display device for selectively displaying one of the digital video signals of the video display controller and digital data signals of the host computer.
By the above structure, only the normal keyboard of a personal computer is needed for the present invention, instead of further designing a customized control interface used in prior art. Besides, a digital display controller is used to control output signals of a scanner, which are stored in a video memory. The output frequency of the digital display controller is the same with that of a personal computer; therefore a lot of unnecessary transformation between different video formats seen usually in prior art can be avoided. Besides, the system complexity and manufacturing cost will be reduced, and the power consumption will be also saved.